THE Lok Sabha has unanimously passed the 1974 India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) ending a stalemate for 41 years. West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya-the four affected states-have to endorse the Bill. That would be a formality. A major breakthrough has been the fact that the Bill has been ratified in its original form as agreed in 2011. The move to exclude the Assam portion from the accord prompted by protests from the BJP state unit in Assam looked like putting the clock back. That has been overcome and it is a healthy sign that the BJP high command has ruled out objections from its Assam unit. The second breakthrough was External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj who piloted the Bill saying that her government was only completing a process initiated by the UPA and walking across the aisle to greet former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. She proved that politics is about negotiation and that consensus-building is a matter of national importance. P.V. Narasimha Rao as Congress Prime Minister getting Atal Behari Vajpayee to lead an Indian delegation to a human rights summit at Geneva comes to mind.
There can be no permanent enemies in pursuing national policy. Need for cooperation is greatly important in finalizing legislation on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for instance. The Teesta river dispute has to be settled to remove obstacles to the supply of silvery hilsa from Bangladesh. Improvement in relations with Bangladesh will develop connectivity in the Northeast where insurgency is still rampant. And finally, an agreement with Bangladesh may pave the way for a boundary accord with China.
